In the production conveyance of articles by continuous conveyor systems wherein the articles are being moved as a continuous stream in overlapped or shingled or separated condition, it is necessary or at least highly desirable, to be able to count the number of articles while they are being conveyed. In the past, various types of counters have been used for determining the number of shingled articles passing a pre-selected location where the counting is effected. Some of these counters have utilized physical contact between the articles and the counting element while others have accomplished the counting through non-contact sensing means. The present invention is principally concerned with means for determining the number of newspapers that are being produced from a printing press and conveyed by a continuous conveyor to the mailroom facilities where the papers are stacked and collected into bundles of pre-selected numbers of paper.
Previously described counters from counting a flowing stream of newspapers are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,414,732, Stegena, 3,737,666, Dutro, 4,027,155, Rappaport and 3,834,289, Behrens et al. These patents are typical of some of the devices that have been used previously to count the papers in a travelling stream. They show, for example, that papers have been counted by physically contacting the newspapers in such a way that a beam of light existing between an emitter and a sensor is interrupted during passage of the papers. Specifically, see the Behrens et al and Dutro patents. The Rappaport patent also requires physical contact with the articles being conveyed and operates on the basis of a difference in the vertical height between the sensors and the light reflecting surface. The apparatus of Stegena on the other hand requires no physical contact, but, rather, depends upon a sensor which is capable of determining the differences between the light and the shaded areas present as the overlapped articles pass beneath the detector element.
It is a principle object of the present invention to provide an improved newspaper counter of the non-contact variety.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved newspaper counter that is less susceptible to variations in printing density than has been the case with previous sensors.
It is an additional object of this invention to provide an improved newspaper counter in which a multiplicity of non-contacting energy sensors are used to receive energy reflected from the surfaces of the travelling newspapers.
Other objects and advantages of this invention will be in part obvious and in part explained by reference to the accompanying specification and drawings in which: